Reporter

Federal Government on Thursday announced a list of 28 road contracts that will benefit from the N100 billion Sukuk bond issued in December 2018 by Debt Management Office (DMO).

Each of the six geopolitical zones will each benefit N16.7 billion to fund identified sections of critically important road projects.

Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed presented a dummy of the N100 billion cheque to Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola at a ceremony held inside the auditorium of Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja.

Speaking in an opening remark, Ahmed recalled that offer was oversubscribed to the tune of N132.2 billion or 132.2%.

“The offer was opened to the general public and subscriptions were received from a wide range of investors: retail investors, pension fund administrators, deposit money banks, fund managers and non-bank financial institutions and other institutional investors.”

She explained the significant increase in the level of participation by retail investors from about four per cent in the debut issuance in 2017 to 17.33 per cent in 2018 means that the objectives of financial inclusion and deepening of the investor base of FGN Securities are gradually being achieved.

A total of 1876 retail investors participated in the December 2018 Sukuk Issuance.

The Sukuk funding option she continued, is part of the initiatives of the government to diversify government funding sources, while also deepening the Nigerian capital market, mobilising more savings and promoting financial inclusion.

Responding, Fashola described the impact of sukuk as one of the important things in terms of nation building, job creation, growth and employment.

“I want to say again that there is no nation that I know of that has gone unto greatness without building. from 1929, the new deal in America from 1940’s the marshal plan in Europe, in our own very generation. The massive construction in Asia particularly China and the middle east.

So Nigeria is going through something similar but perhaps in very challenging times. We missed this opportunity when we had multi-dollar income, $100 per barrel of oil and we did not invest it on infrastructure.

“This administration is committed to follow the part of greatness, build the foundation for tomorrow by investing in infrastructure but what does that do?

“It means that for example we have to raise money and I am very happy to learn that over 1,876 investors are already doing business because Buhari government decides to build.

“That is how to build an economy; roads are coming, those are assets that would enable business that would enable transport, movement of goods and services and assets that will last 25, 30 to 40 years.

“This is a good investment to make.

“As soon as I collect this cheque, i am going to give it to the contractors but even they can’t keep it, they have to give it to their suppliers because they need aggregates, they need materials and labourers but they first need suppliers.”

Six projects will benefit from the North Central, five from the North East, four from the North West, four from the South East, six from the South-South and the remaining three from the South West Zone.

Landlords are treated more favourably than leaseholders in Britain, according to legal executives but they are warning that while the balance needs to change, reform should not discourage property investment.

The current law disadvantages leaseholders, and in its response to a consultation by the Law Commission, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, says while change is needed, it needs to be done in an even handed way so that it does not discourage people from becoming landlords in the first place.

CILEx reveals that 76% of its members surveyed believe that landlords are treated more favourably than leaseholders under the current regime but it says this down not mean that there should be a one size fits all approach which would unrealistically group together various land arrangements with differing rights and interests to consider.

The report also says that enfranchisement reforms must take into consideration concurrent reforms within the leasehold and wider housing sector to ensure reforms are dovetailed together and that leaseholders of houses should have the right to longer lease extensions as the current 50 year period is no longer fit for purpose.

It adds that landlord rights to repossession for the purposes of redevelopment should be limited to the end portion of a lease, and supplemented with a mandatory notice period that provides sufficient time for leaseholders to reorganise their affairs.

It also suggests that the concurrent jurisdiction of both the tribunal and county courts to deal with enfranchisement related disputes should be reformed as it has led to added costs, time delays and exploitation of legal process while a single valuation expert would be useful in solving valuation disputes outside of the tribunal.

‘Our members showed caution against grouping landlords together into one overarching category, overlooking the existence of individual landlords and small to medium sized enterprises who do not pose the same risks as their larger counterparts,’ says the response report.

‘CILEx stresses that along with recognising these nuances within the leasehold sector, and the disparate nature of different landlords; it is imperative that reforms do not unjustifiably shift the balance of favour onto leaseholders without due regard towards landlord interests,’ it points out.

Indeed, some members were concerned that, if this were to happen, there would be a risk of removing all incentives for becoming a landlord, which in turn could have major repercussions on the housing market and wider leasehold sector.

CILEx argues that reform should not limit the freedom of parties to negotiate the terms of their enfranchisement in a bid to solve the underlying inequalities of arms between landlords and leaseholders, and eagerly awaits reforms to home buying and selling along with unfair terms in residential leasehold to remedy this matter.

The response highlighted the importance of improving consumer awareness of costs and processes within the enfranchisement regime, and providing clearer information to frontline practitioners on how the multitude of ongoing leasehold reforms shall interact and be prioritised.

‘We acknowledge the efforts of different agencies, including the Law Commission, to address the concern that leaseholders are at a disadvantage in the current system, but reform must not be piecemeal or fragmented,’ said Philip Sherwood, CILEx president.

‘The Law Commission consultation represents a good start to levelling the playing field and ensuring that leaseholders can assert their rights against unfair landlords,’ he added.

Emeka, his wife Funke and their daughter Zainab lost their home in Urualla to gully erosion, and were forced to travel to Abuja in search of a greener pasture. They are just another face in the sea of tens of millions of people who have migrated to Abuja in the past decade.

Emeka and his family share a squatter settlement with two other families in Jabi. As a daily laborer, his average monthly income is N30K, which probably places him just above the national poverty line. The rent costs him N17K per month. His utilities cost N5K a month, and this excludes food and other living expenses. Emeka faces eviction on a regular basis, a reality for over 50% of people across Nigeria, who currently live in informal settlements.

As the country’s population expands, so does its housing crisis. Currently, 5 out of 10 households dwell in conditions that are not permanent. Across the country, there are over 4,000 informal settlements, or slums, home to approximately 15 million people—who form a majority of the urban workforce in Nigeria. Evidently, affordable urban housing is rapidly becoming a primary issue.

Land is a scarce resource in the country. This scarcity and lack of access to affordable housing compel many to spend over 50% of their total income on rent, despite already living on the national poverty line. The exorbitantly high housing costs leave little to spare for food and other basic amenities, adversely impacting the overall well being of the society and exposing families to a dire cycle of poverty.

Housing Policy AND Affordable Homes will take center stage during the 13th Abuja International Housing Show, an annual global event organized by Fesadeb Media Group. The focus on affordable housing recognizes its significance as a precondition for tackling inequalities, reducing poverty, and addressing climate change.

In Nigeria, if not quickly addressed, the housing concern may turn into a full-blown crisis. Every year, hundreds of thousands Nigerians migrate to Abuja and Lagos from around the country. In order to keep up with this fast-paced population growth, the demand for housing requires building approximately 300,000 new units annually. The housing deficit continues to grow astronomically, in the absence of adequate measures the deficit is projected to increase to 20 million units by 2021.

Every new year is another opportunity to review, re-strategise and re-launch. In order to achieve your real estate goals, you need to keep the ball constantly in front of you. The real estate investment landscape is constantly changing although it does not change as suddenly and dramatic as comparable investments such as stocks and shares.

Real estate investment is relatively stable and generally moves upwards in value over a long period of time. Nevertheless, it is imperative for you to plan and approach it systematically if you are an investor and you seek to make profit in a big way from it.

Before you begin planning for this year in earnest, I believe that you should review your real estate goals for 2018 and see how far or how close you are to achieving it, whether or not you achieve your goals. And what are the lessons that you could extract from your experience?

If you did not achieve your goal in the past year, don’t beat yourself down. There are lessons to be learnt from every failure however painful. If you achieved your goals for 2018, you can set your sight on achieving bigger ones this new year.

The key to success in any goal and in real estate investment is clarity. You need to state in very specific and measurable terms, the goals that you desire to achieve. Then spice your goals with a large dose of motivation by asking why you need to achieve those goals.

Are you interested in creating a steady cashflow that can support your current lifestyle? Are you thinking long term and considering the implication of investing in certain regions or industries? Is this your first property investment or you are an experienced property investor?

While we are all on the same journey, we are at different points on the journey. One thing that separates one person from another is knowledge. If you are new to real estate investment or you are venturing into an unfamiliar aspect of real estate investment, always start by bridging the gap between what you know and what you should know.

This does not require that you go back to school. However, what this often requires is that you associate with those with the knowledge who are willing to share with and mentor you. You will also have the opportunity to bounce ideas off them and seek guidance on your investment decisions.

A good goal should have a reasonable time frame for its achievement. Time is a very important element for success in real estate. Real estate investment is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time and patience to search for and find the ideal property, if you have the capital.

It takes time and effort to find the property and the funds to buy the property. When you desire to sell, it takes time to market the property,conduct several inspections and conclude negotiation.

There are good buying times and there are bad buying seasons depending on where you are in the investment journey. If you are a seller, you are hoping to sell when the prices of properties are high. If you are a purchaser you desire to buy when the prices are low.

One of the things that could accelerate the achievement of your real estate goals is to join a community of likeminded people. This could be in the form of co-operative society or investment club. These groups usually have a fixed monthly contribution that helps you to set aside a percentage of your income for investment. A group of investors can also leverage their number to buy properties at a discount. They could also develop the property together and save lots of money. In my opinion, one of the most important benefits of belonging to groups like this is the mutual support and encouragement the participants are likely to give to one another.

As you begin to put these building blocks in place, I think it is better to concentrate your effort by finding your preferred real estate investment niche.

We are all unique individuals and understanding our uniqueness should guide our investment decisions. Real estate investment is diverse and wide.

You should start by focusing on a specific niche that you are comfortable with.

There are investors that focus strictly on buying and holding vacant land until they sense the right time to sell. There are investors that focus on rental properties and still some others are focused on commercial properties. Determine your niche and concentrate your resources on that area.

Dionne Edwards, CCIM: NAIOP estimates that by 2025, the commercial real estate industry will be faced with a shortage of 15,000 to 25,000 qualified leaders without a significant number of younger leaders to replace them.

We know what the stats say about the shrinking workforce, but what are you seeing and how do you feel about the current talent pool?

Jeff Lyon, CCIM: I’ve got almost 800 total employees in the company, of which 380 are brokers, and there was a lull in getting young individuals into the brokerage business. We’ve had a resurgence of kids coming out of college that actually want to get in the business. But across the board in every one of our positions, it’s a real challenge finding talent.

Brian Murray: At Ryan Companies, it’s a very similar experience. We have 1,200 employees, and about 800 of them are construction, project managers, and superintendents. There’s an awful lot of competition in the marketplace for great talent, and we need to be able to differentiate ourselves to be able to attract and retain people with these talents in a marketplace where post-Great Recession, we lost a lot of people to the construction industry, and many of them went to other industries and never came back.

Collete English Dixon: As an industry, we have not done a very good job of creating a more transparent perspective of what are the skill sets, what are the opportunities, what are the roles that young people might aspire to do. I think it can go a long way to making a difference in building a strong pipeline.

Edwards to English Dixon: For a long time, you were an investment manager. Now you are an educator. How, if at all, has your view of the CRE workforce changed as you moved from investment manager into the education world?

English Dixon: It’s the same problem. It’s looking at how young people see a path and how we get them on it, how we keep them on it, and how we hire them once they get to the other side. I’ve also been able to see through a graduate program a little bit of bias in the industry’s viewpoint about what that entry-level talent looks like and expecting that it always looks like a 22-year-old right out of undergrad. There are a lot of people coming into the industry from other [ones]. They’re going to school to get the knowledge, yet it’s very hard for them to find a spot to stand in.

Lyon: We’ve been working with the universities up and down the [West] coast who have real estate programs or business programs and using [the students] as interns to get them to understand the wide range of options in our business. They hear about the brokers, they hear about the money that could be made, and they see everybody driving the cars and all the good stuff, but they don’t understand that it takes a long time to get there. Our business is very, very tough.

We have a program where we’ll bring in a runner for a year, and they have a mentor to learn the business, to learn what’s going on in the market. We need to reach out to the young people, show them the cross-section of our business and let them figure out where they want to go.

Edwards: What are you doing to attract and retain top talent?

Murray: Our culture is probably the most overarching attraction for people into our business. At Ryan, we have an inverted pyramid where our employees are at the very top, and we take care of our employees, who in turn take care of our customers.

From a recruitment perspective, we go to 25 different diverse career fairs at different universities. We have really made a focus in the last two years on diversity and inclusion. From the construction side, we’re probably 90 percent men and 10 percent women. On the real estate management side, it’s probably 75 percent women, 25 percent men. In our architecture and engineering, it’s probably 50:50.

We have an emerging leaders program where every year we pick anywhere from 10 to 20 of our young, up-and-coming leaders and put them through a year-long program.

Edwards: Brian and Jeff, How do culture, location, and technology impact retention within your firms?

Lyon: Our company is successful today because of our culture. We’re a very entrepreneurial company [and] have a very broad base of ownership. One of the things that retains our people is that they’re able to be a partner in the company. We’ve doubled the size of our company in the last three-and-a-half years, and we’ve attracted some unbelievable talent because of our culture and who we are.

Murray: At Ryan, our chairman, Pat Ryan, who is a third-generation Ryan leader in the business, often says that culture trumps strategy every time or culture eats strategy for breakfast, and we truly believe that. We also have integrated real estate solutions from beginning to end in the life cycle of a building – from initial design to the real estate and asset management on the other end. [That’s] another part of our culture that is unique and differentiates us in the marketplace.

Edwards: Collete, what are you hearing from your students about how factors like culture and technology influence their application decisions?

English Dixon: I think culture is incredibly important. When you have a student body like we do that’s incredibly diverse by every slicing and dicing of socio-economic demographics data, the idea that they can join a firm where they can find a comfortable spot, it is a big discussion. Some megafirms hit the mark really well, some don’t. Some small firms hit the mark really well, some don’t. That information does get around.

Technology – I think the question is new talent’s comfort [level] that a firm is cutting edge with its technology – [using it] to provide the sort of resources and knowledge that’s necessary to be successful – but not to replace people.

Murray: The construction industry is the second-worst industry in productivity over the last 40 years. If you think about the impact of construction and the challenges that we face in recruiting talent, technology is an opportunity that our industry needs to advance significantly. There’s technology out there that can make our workplaces safer.

As an industry, we’re seeing a movement toward modularization and prefabrication, but we have a long way to go. We have to embrace that, and technology can be an enabler moving forward and can help us to improve the concerns that many young people see in entering the workforce.

A big part of the challenge in the construction industry is getting people to enter the trades. We need to expose youth at a much earlier age to see this as an opportunity and use technology to create a work environment where they feel like they can thrive in, but also be safe and not take a toll on their bodies.

Lyon: We’ve been hearing for so long that technology is going to get rid of the real estate broker. But it really boils down to data – information that we have about the marketplace. We haven’t figured out how technology is really going to impact us yet. Is there an Uber of real estate out there? Is there an Amazon of our business that’s going to disrupt everything? The business really hasn’t changed that much, but technology has helped us be better at what we do. You still have to know the market; you still have to know your product; you still have to know the people – and bringing those three things together is how we do transactions.

Edwards: The commercial real estate industry is still lagging on diversity. How are your companies dealing with this?

Murray: We started in an accelerated fashion on diversity inclusion two years ago. The first meeting, we brought in our 200 leaders throughout the company to a conference, and hired an acting group to do skits describing conversations every single one of us have had in the workforce, or at home, or at a cocktail party that border on [being] offensive – what do you say or how do you interact or how do you have a perspective about people that are different than you, whether it’s a different sex, race, or sexual orientation? Those skits opened up conversations to enable people to realize that we all come from different perspectives, and we need to understand where our starting point is. The ultimate goal in our journey is for our workforce to be far more diverse than it is today.

We have probably 8 percent people of color out of our entire 1,200 employees. We’ve had every employee do an unconscious bias training. Our senior leadership group has taken an intercultural competence test that enables us to understand where we are on the continuum of understanding different cultures to help us work together as we move forward.

We’ve just begun a new organizational structure where an executive leadership team will elevate a couple of senior women in our business to have a seat at the table that didn’t exist today. We have a women’s network where women across all different functions get together to talk about women in the workforce.

Lyon: I’ve got the brokerage [side of my] business, and it is predominantly white males across the board. I look at my property management group, I’d say that 50 percent are women. It’s a real challenge to diversify in our industry. That’s one of the reasons we are going to the universities – because you go to universities and you look at the classrooms, and there’s a lot of diversity.

English Dixon: You need to start in the high schools that feed into the colleges to get some of this talent thinking about [the industry], and it means that you connect with diverse population high schools, diverse population universities. For a diverse employee base to be attracted to a firm, they’ve got to believe that the culture is accepting – it is not just diverse, it is inclusive. We tend to lump them together, but they’re very different.

Everybody in the industry who believes that diversity is important has an opportunity to help move the needle – it’s through young people we meet who are trying to figure out what they’re going to do. Let’s talk to them about the industry. Let’s consider mentoring some of them to pursue that. We’ve really got to build a house around real estate that looks hospitable and looks welcoming.

Edwards: What steps do you think educators can take to better prepare the next generation of commercial real estate pros?

Lyon: It’s easy to do internal rates of return and all the analytics and everything we learned in the CCIM courses. The biggest challenges are writing skills and communication skills. So many people get in the business and they don’t even know how to make a presentation, to make a pitch. In our business as a broker, you’ve got to be willing to make the call, and if they don’t have communication skills, they’re not going to make it.

If you plan to embark on a new career move this year, you should try casting your eye to Europe or the Middle East. That’s according to a new report from HSBC, which found that the top five countries for expat workers were all outside North America and Asia.

Based on responses from 22,318 expats working in 163 countries, the report measured those destinations deemed best for international workers along a series of metrics — such as work/life balance, earnings prospects and career development. It found that select nations in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region scored most highly.

Strong salaries, positive work cultures, job security and personal fulfillment opportunities all enabled the region to jump forward in the bank’s annual list and gain the top spots. Notable expat destinations in Asia and North America — such as the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong — also made gains this year and appeared in the top 10. But Singapore saw a drop this year, missing out on the top five to take its place among the final 10.

To determine the results, survey participants were asked to rate the experience of their new work location according to eight career-focused questions. Their responses were then converted into an overall country rating and compared to last year’s study. External factors, such as the economic and political climate, were not directly taken into account but may have influenced respondents’ ratings.

John Goddard, head of HSBC Expat, the offshore banking arm of HSBC Group, said the ranking could provide inspiration for those looking to boost their careers with a move overseas.

“The new year can often be a catalyst for considering where you are and where you want to be, particularly when it comes to your career,” he said. “There’s no ‘one size fits all’ but if you’re looking for career inspiration, it may be worth going beyond the borders of your home country to find the place where you can thrive at work.”

Here’s a look at the top five countries for experts in 2019:

5. Switzerland

Panoramic photo of Chapel bridge and Reuss River in the city of Lucerne, Switzerland.

Appearing in fifth position in this year’s ranking was Switzerland.

A consistently strong destination for expat workers, the country scored especially well with regard to career progression. Almost two-thirds, or 62 percent of survey respondents, said the country offered a good environment for their professional development. Yet that did not come at the expense of their personal life, they said, with 63 percent claiming a better work/life balance there than in their home country.

Additionally, Switzerland scored highly for remuneration, with 76 percent of expats agreeing that their earnings prospects had improved since relocating, placing it just behind Bahrain in that metric.

4. United Arab Emirates

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Home to business hubs Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates held onto its position as the fourth most popular country for expat workers for the fourth year running.

With a well-established reputation among the expat community, the UAE is particularly renowned for its financial incentives. Ninety-five percent of expats in the UAE reported receiving benefits as part of their employment package — the highest level in the world — while almost three quarters (73 percent) said their earnings prospects were better than in their home country.

The country is also recognized for its inviting work culture, with half the respondents claiming the work culture was better there than in their home nation.

3. United Kingdom

Despite Brexit blues, the U.K. moved up six places this year to claim third place among the most desirable countries for expats.

Boasting good prospects for both professional and personal development, Britain gained points this year for offering a good work/life balance and strong salaries. The majority (58 percent) of foreign workers also said the working culture in the U.K. was better than in their home country.

Britain also scored highly with regard to education. More than two-fifths, or 43 percent, of foreign workers have a post graduate degree. Meanwhile, respondents ranked it as the best country in the world to learn new skills and the fourth best to climb the career ladder — just behind Hong Kong, the U.S. and Singapore.

2. Bahrain

Rising 10 places up the rankings this year was Bahrain, which won favor with expats thanks to its enviable remuneration packages.

An impressive 77 percent of foreign workers reported better earnings prospects in Bahrain than in their home country, up from 62 percent last year. Even more notable, though, were the additional relocation benefits expats typically received for making the move. Accommodation allowance (69 percent), airfare stipend (68 percent), and medical packages (64 percent) were among the perks most typically received.

Aside from an attractive remuneration package, life in Bahrain also looks good on the career development front. Relationships are important in the Middle Eastern island nation and more than half the respondents, or 59 percent, said learning to navigate those has made them a better leader.

1. Germany

Topping this year’s list was Germany, which moved up one place from 2018.

True to its reputation for efficiency, the European powerhouse was deemed a hub for career progression, with 65 percent describing it as productive. However, that needn’t come at the expense of personal life, according to respondents: 70 percent of foreign workers said that their work/life balance had improved since relocating to Germany.

Among the other benefits celebrated by expats in Germany were its working culture, which ranked second only to Sweden’s, and its level of job security. Thanks to a highly regulated labor market, almost three quarters of respondents reported improved job security in Germany versus their home country.

Nigeria’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth will expand by 2.2 per cent in 2019, the World Bank said in its annual Global Economic Prospects published yesterday. This slightly upgrades the country’s projected growth rate from 2.1 per cent in June 2018.

According to the World Bank, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa would accelerate to 3.4 per cent in 2019, due to improved investment in large economies together with continued robust growth in non-resource intensive countries.

“Per capita growth is forecast to remain well below the long-term average in many countries, yielding little progress in poverty reduction.

“Growth in Nigeria is expected to rise to 2.2 per cent in 2019, assuming that oil production will recover and a slow improvement in private demand will constrain growth in the non-oil industrial sector.

“Angola is forecast to grow 2.9 per cent in 2019 as the oil sector recovers as new oil fields come on stream and as reforms bolster the business environment.

“South Africa is projected to accelerate modestly to a 1.3 per cent pace, amid constraints on domestic demand and limited government spending,” the bank said.

On the risk to the region’s growth, the World Bank stated that escalated trade tensions between the United States and China could impact negatively on the region.

It said domestic risks, in particular, remained elevated, that political uncertainty and a concurrent weakening of economic reforms could continue to weigh on the economic outlook in many countries.

“In countries like Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa holding elections in 2019, domestic political considerations could undermine the commitments needed to rein in fiscal deficits, especially where public debt levels are high and rising.

The bank downgraded global economic growth from 3 per cent in 2018 to 2.9 per cent in 2019 due to trade tensions, rising borrowing costs and persistent policy uncertainties.

Some 3.1 million new social homes are needed to solve England’s housing crisis as part of a 20 year home building programme to create affordable homes, a new report says.

It has been put together by 16 independent commissioners asked by homeless charity Shelter to look at what came be done to increase the number of affordable homes in the country.

They spent a year listening to the views of hundreds of social tenants, 31,000 members of the public and a range of housing experts and found that 1.27 million homes for those in greatest housing need are required.

It also says that 1.17 million homes for so-called trapped renters, that is younger families who cannot afford to buy and face a lifetime in expensive and insecure private renting, are needed and 690,000 homes for older private renters, people over 55 struggling with high housing costs and insecurity beyond retirement.

The commissioners argue politicians cannot remain idle at a time when half of young people have no chance of ever buying a home, private renters on lower incomes spend an average of 67% of their earnings on rent, and almost 280,000 people in England are homeless.

‘Social mobility has been decimated by decades of political failure to address our worsening housing crisis. Half of young people cannot buy, and thousands face the horror of homelessness,’ said Commissioner Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

‘Our vision for social housing presents a vital political opportunity to reverse this decay. It offers the chance of a stable home to millions of people, providing much needed security and a step up for young families trying to get on in life and save for their future. We simply cannot afford not to act,’ she added.

Analysis carried out for the commission by Capital Economics suggests the economic benefits of social house building would ultimately outweigh the initial costs. The programme would require an average yearly investment of £10.7 billion during the construction phase, but Capital Economics estimate that up to two thirds of this could be recouped through housing benefit savings and increased tax revenue each year.

On this basis the true net additional cost to the Government, if the benefits were fully realised, would be just £3.8 billion on average per year over the 20 year period and after 39 years the investment will have fully paid for itself.

The Capital Economics research also shows that existing products such as Help to Buy are a less effective use of tax-payers money. The commission goes on to conclude that building social homes is the only way for the Government to reach its 300,000 homes a year target.

‘There needs to be a profound shift to see social housing as a national asset like any other infrastructure. A home is the foundation of individual success in life, and public housebuilding can be the foundation of national success. It is the only hope the government has of hitting its 300,000 homes a year target,’ said Commissioner Lord Jim O’Neill.

‘The Government’s budget for capital expenditure is £62 billion a year, our house building programme would cost only a fraction and is well within its financial reach. With current spending on housing benefit shockingly inefficient, it’s not hard to see what an investment in bricks and mortar could do to help solve the housing crisis and boost our economy,’ he explained.

It also calls for a new Ofsted-style consumer regulator?to protect residents and to enforce common standards?across social and private renting, a?new national tenants’ voice organisation to represent the views of tenants in social housing to national and local Government and a new national standard to ensure enough investment in maintaining social homes and their surrounding neighbourhoods.

According to Jackie Bennett, director of mortgages at UK Finance, the recommendations in the report could provide a major boost to development activity by housing associations and local councils.

‘Lenders are committed to playing their part, providing substantial levels of commercial lending and investment to support the creation of new housing association homes across the UK,’ she said.

‘Our members stand ready to work with the government, the regulator of social housing, and housing associations to meet these new challenges and continue their support for long term investment in affordable homes,’ she added.

However, Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders said the report does not acknowledge the role of local plans in stimulating social housing, as local authorities can work hand in glove with providers to assure them of development opportunities during the site allocation phase.

‘Industry, popular opinion and economists continue to tell the Government that they must build more social homes. It’s time they listened and became the first Government in 20 years to meet very clear expectations,’ he added.

Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the House Builders Association welcomed the report. ‘A major social house building programme is a no brainer. You help house those in need, stimulate local employment and business, help fix part of the broken housing market and build for the future,’ he said.

With the year 2018 ending on a rather not encouraging note for practitioners in the building construction industry, and considering that 2019 is an election year, key stakeholders in the industry are of the view that not much is expected to happen in the industry prior to May 29.

According to them, there is uncertainty in the political arena with funds being diverted towards the success of the election. For them, it is not a favourable time to invest in the housing construction sector as the fear of policy summersault in the event of a change in government may prevent investors, especially from outside the country, from investing their funds.

Notwithstanding the seeming apathy in the sector, the views of some notable professionals in the industry, who have preferred roadmap to improve housing delivery in the course of the year was sought.

Individually, they gave their advice from their professional perspective, both to the government and the private sector. It is not a job for only the government, they said. Both the government and the private sector have got their individual and collective role to play.

One point that, however, runs through their thoughts is the realization that there is a shortfall and that something ought to be done, if urgently, to ameliorate the situation.

Experts have said there is need to manage sand extraction to avoid huge environmental impact. It said that about 50 billion tons of sand and gravel are used around the world every year.

The experts at the first round-table focusing on sand, organised by the United Nations Environment, Global Resources Information Database (GRID)- Geneva and the University of Geneva in 2018 said sand extraction from places with fragile ecosystems, if not managed correctly, can have huge environmental impact.

“The experts at the roundtable agreed that extraction on a beach, for instance, not only leads to the destruction of local biodiversity but can also reduce the scope for tourism.

In a report on the website of UN Environment titled, “The Search for Sustainable Sand Extraction is Beginning’, said the huge demand for sand may also lead to illegal sand extraction which is becoming an issue in many places.

“Fifty billion tons of sand and gravel are used around the world every year. This is the equivalent to a 35-metre-high by 35-metre-wide wall around the equator.

“Most sand goes into the production of cement for concrete (which is made of cement, water, sand and gravel). Cement, a key input into concrete, the most widely used construction material in the world, is a major source of greenhouse gases, and accounts for about eight per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a recent Chatham House report,” the report said.

Various stakeholders from the industrial, environmental and academic sector came together in Geneva to discuss the emerging issue of sand extraction and solutions to address potential environmental impact.

“It is extraordinary that so little attention has been given to this problem,” says Bart Geenen, head of the freshwater programme at the World Wildlife Fund – Netherlands.

The experts said innovative solutions are being tested to replace sand in the construction of roads and buildings adding that recycled plastic, earth, bamboo, wood, straw and other materials can be used as alternative building materials.

While there is no magic bullet, the Geneva meeting agreed that it is important to raise awareness of the fact that sand is not a limitless resource and that there are possible negative effects of sand extraction. Good practices must be shared and the communication gap between policymakers and consumers overcome.

The Geneva meeting concluded that the way forward is to collect more data, and to work on implementing policies and standards to protect delicate ecosystems from illegal and environmentally harmful sand extraction. The search for sustainable solutions should start now, the meeting concluded.